Parent Characteristics and Perceptions Associated with Youth Gender Stereotyping, Conditional Tolerance for Dating Violence, and Abuse in Dating Relationships

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of parents’ personal characteristics, personal relationships, and parenting behaviors in association with youth dating attitudes and behaviors and experiences of adolescent relationship abuse (ARA).  This research addresses multiple gaps in the literature:  (1) The relationship between parenting characteristics and behaviors (in their own intimate partnerships and their relationship with their child) and adolescent relationship aggression has not been investigated at the national level, with many local studies relying on convenience samples or focused on high-risk populations; (2) With one exception, most studies of the role of parental monitoring, dating rules, and parent-child relationship quality rely solely on youth reports; and (3) There has been limited attention to dating rules specifically, compared to general parental oversight and monitoring. 

This study draws on the nationally representative Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV).  Separate parent and youth (ages 12-18) surveys provide a dyad sample of n=1,804, with a subsample (n=667) of current or recent youth daters who reported on their ARA experiences.  Parent constructs and parent reports of adolescent characteristics are drawn from the background-situational model and the theory of social learning.  Outcome measures include youth reports of gender stereotypical attitudes as well as attitudes condoning dating relationship violence conditional on specific circumstances.  Analyses are stratified by youth gender and age group. Given the consistent finding that early exposure to violence is associated with later relationship behaviors, we hypothesized that parents’ anger trait and attitudes conditionally tolerant of domestic violence would be positively correlated with ARA, as would parent reports of the child’s temperamental problems and lower quality of life.  Conversely, we expected that parental reports of their adult intimate relationship quality and parent-child relationship quality would be negatively associated with youth gender stereo typing, conditional tolerance of dating violence, and specific ARA experiences.  

Preliminary multivariate analyses show that the while the gender of the parent reporter is insignificant, the effects of the predictors of interest vary by the gender and the age of the youth.  For example, conflict in the parent’s own relationship is positively associated with ARA perpetration by girls ages 12-15 but negatively associated with ARA perpetration by boys ages 16-18, whose reports of ARA perpetration are also associated with critical parenting styles. Boys ages 12-15 are more likely to report ARA perpetration if the parent reports attitudes conditionally tolerant of domestic violence.  None of these variables are significant predictors of ARA perpetration by girls ages 16-18.